Team

About the Team

Entrepreneur and innovation promoter, Amir Banifatemi has a passion for entrepreneurship, education, and active mentorship. Amir’s career spans more than 28 years in Europe and the United States in the development and growth of high technology ventures. He is an active angel investor, board member of the Tech Coast Angels , and the founding member of K5 Ventures. With a constant focus on identifying and developing future and emerging technologies that can impact society, he got inspired by TED conferences where he found that the intersection of ideas, innovation, and community that TED and the TEDx program offer to be a compelling experience and a driver to further actions and engagement.

Andrea Caban is Head of Voice & Speech at California State University, Long Beach and an award winning solo performer. She has performed her original works in Colombia, the UK, South Africa, Costa Rica, Spain and across the US. She is the Associate Director/Master Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork, an actor training methodology. Current research: Fitzmaurice Voicework and Knight-Thompson Speechwork in the care of people living with ALS to prolong the ability to speak without assistive devices. Other research interests include: Arts Based Research theatrical performance forms such as auto-ethnography, community-based theatre, and investigative theatre, and projects in the Medical Humanities. She is the dialect expert on HowCast.com demonstrating over 35 accents, a theatrical production coach, and a speaker coach for TED talks. MFA, UC Irvine.

Arteen Arabshahi

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Arteen Arabshahi

Arteen is Vice President and founding member at Fika Ventures. Prior to that, Arteen joined as #2 at Karlin Ventures, an LA-based early stage fund.

Before investing in enterprise software and marketplaces , Arteen spearheaded the launch of Built In LA, an online community for digital entrepreneurs and innovators. Prior to Built In LA, his passion for startups flourished while helping run operations at Excelerate Labs, now Techstars Chicago. Arteen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona with a BSBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship and was selected for Forbes 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital in 2016.

When not with startups, Arteen has been a board member for various TEDx events and is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

Brian Goodman

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Brian Goodman

Brian Goodman is senior vice president of strategy and business development at Technossus, an award-winning software solutions and technology consulting firm, responsible for both new client acquisition and expansion of existing strategic accounts, as well as marketing and maintaining client satisfaction. As an integral member of the executive team, he plays a critical role in determining the strategic direction of the company. Goodman has more than 16 years of strategic and operational experience building and expanding enterprises, from early-stage companies to divisions of leading international corporations across the software and professional services sectors. He began his successful career in the software industry as a corporate attorney focused on private equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, and technology transactions, serving as corporate counsel at AltaVista, an internet and software company which was acquired by Yahoo!, and senior corporate counsel at Paciolan, Inc. which was later acquired by Ticketmaster.

Goodman was also responsible for launching and building a successful consulting division for Resources Connection, a $600M publicly traded multinational professional services firm that helps business leaders execute internal initiatives. Prior to Technossus, Goodman served as managing director of the multi-billion-dollar consulting and professional services firm, Experis, where he led a team of more than 275 professionals across nine cities, consulting with Fortune 500 companies.

Currently pursuing an MBA from the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University, Goodman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business economics from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kansas School of Law.

Chris Lang

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Chris Lang

Mr. Lang holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Wyoming and an MFA from the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.)/Moscow Art Theatre School (MXAT) Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. While at Harvard, Mr. Lang was afforded the honor of being accepted to the program in teacher training under Fitzmaurice Master Teacher Nancy Houfek. Mr. Lang spent the subsequent years training as a voice, speech, dialect, and text coach for both actors and non-actors.

Mr. Lang’s work now focuses on his Los Angeles based theatre company (Elysiuim Conservatory Theatre), where he serves as a senior member of the acting company, and as head of Voice and Speech at the Acting Matrix Conservatory. Additionally, Mr. Lang works out of his home studio recording voiceover for radio and audio books.

Mr. Lang also teaches and coaches through the Lang Voice Studio, his private studio, where he works with students on all areas of voice and voice related growth. Clients can expect to grow in all areas of their voice and can work on issues ranging from vocal production to accent acquisition and reduction, as well as voice over, corporate training and comprehensive presentation and imaging skills.

As a voice coach, Mr. Lang has coached productions in regional theatres around America, and internationally. He has coached productions alongside some of the industry’s foremost directors including Robert Woodruff, Ola Mafaalani, Jeri Mouwad, Rinde Eckert, Gadi Roll, Marcus Stern, Martin Jago, KJ Sanchez, Scott Zigler, Sam Wiseman, Roman Kozak, and Karin Coonrod. He has also coached privately for film and television actors: Bernie White (24 and The West Wing), Mam Smith (HBO’s Angels in America), Diana Schneider (The Good Shepherd).

Mr. Lang has taught at Harvard University, Harvard Summer and Extensions Schools, the University of Wyoming, the ART Institute, The Moscow Art Theatre School, AMDA, The Acting Matrix Conservatory, and The Andrew Wood Acting Studio.

Christian Johnson

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Christian Johnson

Christian Johnson is a strategist, social entrepreneur, and speaker with experience developing solutions related to global impact in the fields of healthcare, sustainability, and the bioeconomy. Currently, Christian is co-founder and Chief Development Officer of Seed Consulting Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit consulting organization. Since 2014, Seed has provided over $1M in pro-bono consulting to environmental and public health organizations such as the LA Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Habitat for Humanity, and Cal Tech. Prior, Christian served as Director of Operations at PVTI Healthcare Consulting, consultant at BioFiber Solutions, and co-founded a healthcare clinic startup called BrixClinic.

Christian has delivered a TEDx Talk, been honored by the Lord Mayor of Perth, Australia, for the leadership development of American and Australian youth, and is recipient of UCI’s Merage Fellowship, USC’s Order of Aréte,and Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Most Outstanding President honors. Christian is currently earning an MBA at the UCI Merage School of Business, has an M.S. in Global Medicine from USC, and has a B.S in Environmental Science and Sustainability from UCLA.

Clint Misamore

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Clint Misamore

Clinton is a super connector who is passionate about mobilizing people around cause based action. When he’s not gathering people around a dinner table to talk about ideas to improve humankind, you can probably find him enjoying Mother Nature on one of LA’s great hiking trails.

For the last decade, Clinton has worked with global leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs to help shape 21st century philanthropy. He currently serves as the head of Nexus Global Youth Summit in Los Angeles—one of the largest organizations representing the intersection of next generation wealth and philanthropy. Additionally, he has co-founded four organizations – Y-Generation Against Poverty (raising and investing millions of dollars for impact entrepreneurs who are improving conditions for those living in poverty), GoGood, Sanejo and Startup Impact Day, collectively impacting over 150k beneficiaries in 7 countries and on 4 continents.

Courtney Chism

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Courtney Chism

I’m a recent graduate of USC, with a BFA in Screenwriting. I’ve performed spoken word and done public speaking since middle school. I’m originally from Omaha, Nebraska but I’ve lived in Houston, Texas and Farmington, Michigan. As an African American woman, I’m dedicated to helping other underrepresented groups build a voice and platform for their stories and ideas.

Deborah Kattler Kupetz

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Deborah Kattler Kupetz

Deborah Kattler Kupetz is Los Angeles’ foremost authority on green event planning, a career that sprung out of her combined passions for social action, environmentalism, and building community. Her entrepreneurial spirit soon led her out of a decade-long career in clothing manufacturing to found dkkevents, which produced more than 30 Earth-friendly events in its first year. Kattler Kupetz holds master’s degrees in gerontology and social work from the University of Southern California and resides in Brentwood, California.

Ehsan Bozorgi

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Ehsan Bozorgi

Class of 2013 from CSU Fullerton. Have three years of event volunteer experience.

Eric Espinosa

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Eric Espinosa

Eric is a Special Projects Coordinator, Mayor’s Operations Innovation Team at City of Los Angeles at City of Los Angeles.

Erik Huberman

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Erik Huberman

Erik Huberman is the Founder & CEO of Hawke Media, a full-service outsourced CMO and digital marketing agency based in Santa Monica, CA. In 2.5 years, Hawke Media has grown from 7 to over 60 employees and has been valued at $30 million. Clients include Red Bull, Verizon Wireless, evite, TRX, Raleigh Bicycles, and many other large and small brands. Prior to Hawke Media, Erik founded, grew and sold Swag of the Month and grew Ellie.com’s sales to $1 million in four months. As a serial entrepreneur and brand marketing expert, Erik has become one of the most sought-after thought leaders in the business. Erik is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including Forbes30 under 30, Inc Magazine’s Top 25 Marketing Influencers, and a 2016 Telly Award for the Hawke Media commercial he co-wrote and starred in.

Erin Stumpf

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Erin Stumpf

Erin Stumpf (https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-stumpf)

Erin has more than a decade of experience in graphic design, event planning, social media strategy and marketing management for nonprofits, corporations, startups and government agencies.

She is currently co-founder at Canvass, a creative consulting agency that specializes in graphic design, event production and strategic marketing and communications for clients in the technology, education, aerospace and energy industries. At Canvass,

As a volunteer active in her community, Erin is the co-founder and lead organizer of TEDxVeniceBeach. She also helped to produce TEDxUSC.

Espree Devora

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Espree Devora

Espree Devora “the Girl who Gets it Done” is the creator of WeAreLATech (wearelatech.com) which unites the LA tech community via a podcast, a calendar of all tech events happening in the city, collaborative private chat and an offline ‘Experience’ Club. The Club provides people working in tech curated activities to step away from the computer like horseback riding, escape rooms, food tours, movie screenings, clay pigeon shooting, archery and more. She is Producer and Host of WeAreLATech, #womenintech and “Hello Customer” Podcasts. Ranked top 5 on iTunes New & Noteworthy across all categories. She has run the monthly LA podcasters meetup since 2014. She has given talks on entrepreneurship to many organizations including USC Business School, CBS, South by Southwest and Georgetown MBA.

Fred Thiel

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Fred Thiel

Dreams have the power to engage the imagination and bring forth ideas that can revolutionize the world. Ever since I was a young boy, I have dreamed of ways to make things better, faster, smarter, more effective, and more efficient. I have had the great fortune to spend my nearly 40 year long career innovating ways to use technology to create products and services that have had an impact on people and businesses across a wide spectrum of industries, I participated in the PC revolution, the rapid growth of computer networks, the Internet and world wide web, e-commerce, online games, wireless networks, digital media, the Internet of Things, big data, automation, predictive analytics and more recently artificial intelligence. Today I focus my ideas and efforts on mentoring leaders and helping businesses innovate ways to positively transform themselves, create greater value and improve the quality of the world we live in.

Giri Kalluri

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Giri Kalluri

As the head of day-to-day operations at Technossus, Giri is a guiding force in directing and achieving organizational goals. His strategic and operational leadership is critical to Technossus’ financial success, and he is instrumental in driving efficiencies and innovation that contribute to long-term growth. Through his sound guidance and direction, Technossus has grown to be one of the fastest-growing software companies in the U.S.

Grant Graves

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Grant Graves

Grant W. Graves is an award winning director and director of photography. His emphasis in his work has been on all things water; fresh, frozen, and salt. He works in topside environments in fiction and non fiction as well, generally in hard to access or difficult shooting situations having contributed to programming with most of the major outlets. He is an accomplished photographer and writer. He has a B.S. in marine biology and is a Cambrian Foundation Research Diver and West Coast Coordinator with NOAA diving status.

Hollie Stenson

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Hollie Stenson

Hollie is the Founder of WOOMIR Global, a company devoted to creating ways for businesses to financially thrive while making social contributions to the world. Formerly the President / Executive Director of The FILManthropy Society, a L.A. based organization that created awareness for social issues through the medium of film, and it’s primary initiative, The FILManthropy Festival, her direct involvement benefited several organizations whose missions ranged from building fresh water wells in Cambodia to raising awareness about albino genocide in Africa. Armed with a Masters in Social Entrepreneurship and Change from Pepperdine University, she’s spent several months in Kenya working with the social enterprise Jacaranda Community, which empowers single mothers and widows from impoverished communities with income-generating skills. She also consults for several other environmental organizations and companies, such as Hippo Works, an animation house that in conjunction with UNICEF creates cartoons to teach children about climate change and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Hollie is helped to organize TEDx Venice Beach 2015, is on the board of three charity organizations and is thrilled to be a part of this amazing team for the inaugural TEDxLA.

Ian Murphy

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Ian Murphy

Ian Murphy has more than a decade of experience as an executive in marketing, communications,
event management and public relations. During this time, he designed and managed a diverse portfolio of projects and promotions for Fortune 100 corporations, start-ups, non-profits, government agencies and major research universities. He has helped produce TEDxUSC and produced TEDx VeniceBeach.

John Werner is the founder of Ideas in Action, Inc. (IIA) and the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Meta, former Head of Innovation and New Ventures for the Camera Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab for Ramesh Raskar, director of the Camera Culture Group at MIT Media Lab. He is one of the founding members of the non-profit organization Citizen Schools (founded in 1995) and the curator of TEDxBeaconStreet, an independent event licensed by TED as part of TEDx. He is also founding managing director for MIT Media Lab’s Emerging Worlds Special Interest Group (SIG).

He brings his knowledge and experience to TEDxLA as a producer.

Jynarra Brinson

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Jynarra Brinson

Embracing change, I moved from my native Miami, Fl to Los Angeles about a decade ago. Since then I finished my undergrad at UCLA, turned friends into family, and grew my wings. Those wings have landed me here, on this site yearning for ways to expand and IMAGINE all that there is (and isn’t).

Kara DeFrias

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Kara DeFrias

Kara DeFrias has a unique private and public sector background, including producing TEDxIntuit and directing TEDxSanDiego and TEDxVeniceBeach. She currently works at the White House, and previous experience includes the Presidential Innovation Fellows, 18F, TurboTax, the Oscars, the Emmys, Super Bowl, and FIFA Women’s World Cup. A do-gooder at heart, she’s done pro-bono digital strategy for the likes of Team Rubicon; spent 10 days in rural India teaching human centered design and business skills to micro-entrepreneur women; and guest lectures at University of California San Diego STEM Academy for high school girls. Follow her on Twitter @CaliforniaKara.

She began her career in advertising with agencies including BBDO Worldwide where she served as Vice President, New Business Development and Communications for LA, San Francisco, and Atlanta.

After 10 years in advertising, Mandato entered human resources, working for companies including Turner, E! Entertainment, Style, G4, and DreamWorks. In 2007, she joined Comcast Entertainment Group as head of HR and subsequently became the HR leader for NBC Entertainment when Comcast merged with NBCUniversal in 2011.

Laurie Parres

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Laurie Parres

Ideas and storytelling are both big loves + I write and produce television, so TED hits all the sweet spots. I was Speaker Coordinator for TEDxYouth@SantaMonica and a TEDxSantaMonica volunteer. In 2014 I got to stand on the iconic red dot in Whistler and give a TEDActive talk to a room so receptive it was like being in a basket of puppies. Hats off to Edwina Throsby, former curator of TEDxSydney, who had all the singletons wear heart stickers so they could spot potential matches. If I wear my heart on my sleeve, please say hi!

Lindsey Burris

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Lindsey Burris

Lindsey Burris is passionate about innovative initiatives that drive positive change in the world. She has worked with some of today’s leading visionaries that are creating the future.

Most recently, she served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Gen Next Foundation, which utilizes venture philanthropy to maximize opportunities for future generations. The Gen Next Foundation tackled the root causes of today’s issues and deployed dynamic networks of talent and resources around innovative solutions in education, global security and economic opportunity.

Prior to the Gen Next Foundation, she led the Alliances team at the XPRIZE Foundation, the world’s leader in designing and operating large-scale global incentive competitions.

She produces a podcast, American Philanthropy, sharing stories and passions of fascinating people creating extraordinary impact in the world. She attended Pepperdine University and studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina, graduating with a degree in sociology.

Lucas Donat

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Lucas Donat

Lucas Donat is the chief brand officer of TrueCar, Inc., responsible for brand and positioning, consumer and trade advertising and creative content development across TV, radio and digital mediums.

Previously, Donat was chief marketing officer, where he oversaw creative strategy development and user engagement for television, radio and digital advertising. During this time, he also served as part-time CEO of a Santa Monica-based advertising agency that he founded in 1990. In 2012, his agency, Tiny Rebellion, became the company’s agency of record and played a central role in evolving the brand’s identity for both dealer and consumer audiences.

Prior to partnering with TrueCar, Donat led Tiny Rebellion as it presided over the branding of several internet companies, including eHarmony, LegalZoom and Hotwire. Under his creative leadership Tiny Rebellion won Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year in 2014.

Overall, Donat has more than 20 years of advertising experience. Lucas attended Ithaca College’s School of Communications.

Mary Cheval

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Mary Cheval

Director, Interior Architecture & Design, Ware Malcomb Architecture

Mary is a leader in the architectural community with significant experience in strategic facility planning, project management, client development and staff management.

With more than 25 years of experience, she produces creative and innovative design solutions while ensuring meticulous detail from initial concept through construction and post-occupancy evaluation.

Miranda Harrison

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Miranda Harrison

A global citizen who collects moments and experiences, I have travelled the world in search of the unfamiliar: to seek understanding of people & places. I grew up on a farm in Colorado, riding horses and wearing cowboy boots. My life has changed drastically from those days, but my love for the environment and creating a more sustainable future is my #1 passion.

Mohamed Alkady

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Mohamed Alkady

Mohamed Alkady is the president of Hart, a medical software technology company in Orange County empowering people to easily access and engage with their health. Hart, founded in 2012 after identifying a critical need for improvements in the flow of patient data within and across multiple health networks. Today Alkady’s team at Hart develops products and services to help clients stay on the cutting edge of technology. Under his guidance, Hart is fulfilling a vision of an industry that can better serve patients by maximizing, rather than resisting, the perpetual changes and transformations so inherent to it.

Mojdeh Eskandari

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Mojdeh Eskandari

Mojdeh’s multicultural upbringing shaped her character to become a change agent, resourceful leader, problem solver, business mentor, and philanthropist. During her career she has assumed senior executive roles for highly competitive international high tech companies in Asia, Europe, and the US.

She has a passion for adventure, innovation, selfless leaders, and connecting ideas and resources to make amazing things happen.

Mojdeh has been inspired by TED talks for many years and has engaged in organizing TEDx events to spread great ideas and create a new dynamism in various communities. She has notably produced TEDxOrangeCoast in Orange County- CA, TEDxChampElysees Live in Paris, and TEDxKish in Kish, Iran.

Nancy Christiano

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Nancy Christiano

Nancy Christiano is a proactive leader, visionary, strategic thinker, and public relations expert focusing on national and international business development. She has depth in management and coalition building at the grassroots, state, national and international levels in business and non-profit sectors.

Nousha Navaie

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Nousha Navaie

Nousha is an entrepreneur, artist and founder of StyleUP.xyz. She enjoys the excitement of creating something new and swimming through the uncertainties that comes with it.

Pamela Vanderway

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Pamela Vanderway

Pamela Vanderway is a 19-year veteran of the entertainment industry having worked as a professional dialect coach for a wide variety theatre , film, and television productions. Her actor clientele includes Oscar, Tony and Emmy winners. She is currently the President of Dialect Coaches Worldwide Inc. whose mission (via DialectCoaches.com) is to provide a central location for finding reliable dialect information as well as quality training and production support for directors, producers, actors, and coaches across the globe.

Rafe Furst

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Rafe Furst

Beginning in Silicon Valley in the mid 1990s, Rafe has founded, invested in and advised dozens of startups, including Pickem Sports, Full Tilt Poker, and Crowdfunder. To date, his companies have generated over $1 Billion in revenue and $450 Million in liquidity to stakeholders.

An avid poker player, he’s won a World Series of Poker Championship, produced an award-winning instructional video, and has helped raise millions of dollars for cancer prevention and other charitable causes.

Rafe is a pioneer in Quantitative Venture Capital, a nascent field based on the convergence of equity crowdfunding, complexity economics and securities law reform.

He holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and M.S. in Computer Science / Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University

Saara is a seasoned executive in business development and strategy with both corporate and start-up companies. Upon graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Saara started her career on Wall Street and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. In LA, she was part of the founding team at Warner Independent Pictures, the independent films arm of Warner Bros Entertainment, where she discovered her natural entrepreneurial skills and passion for creating new businesses.

In 2007, Saara co-founded JUST PERFECT a successful event production and experiential marketing company. She managed and operated the business for six years and stayed fully active while pursuing her MBA at USC’s Marshall. In 2012, Saara was recruited by the Global Head of Advisory at EY to join the company’s newly formed Customer Strategy group where she primarily focused on customer centric innovation and digital strategy projects and led major initiatives
for Fortune 500 companies.

As a passion project, Saara created FITNESS4PURPOSE, a movement that raises funds and awareness for worthy causes through fitness activities, challenges and events. Through her latest venture, enerG, Saara is determined to innovate centuries-old mindfulness practices utilizing technology and VR to create immersive and moving experiences that are deeply engaging and a part of our daily lives.

Sara Siegel

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Sara Siegel

Wrangler of Jello. Lover of creating order amongst chaos and synchronizing collaborations. I find my deepest passion in producing media of all flavors.

Saul Kotzubei

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Saul Kotzubei

Since 1999, I have offered an individualized approach to working with people on their voice, breathing, presence and communication.

I now teach voice and public speaking in Los Angeles and internationally. I am a lead trainer for the two-year Fitzmaurice Voicework Teacher Certification Program. I participated in the first Fitzmaurice Voicework Teacher Certification Program, in 1998. This program was developed by the founder of Fitzmaurice Voicework, my mother, Catherine Fitzmaurice. I am now also Director of The Fitzmaurice Institute (which trains voice teachers worldwide).

I have a Masters degree in Buddhist Studies from Columbia University. I also have a fair amount of acting experience and training supplemented by a year studying clown with Philippe Gaulier in England. I have taught at NYU’S CAP 21 Studio, New York’s Actors Center, and in workshops in Los Angeles, NYC, Boston, and San Francisco, as well as in London, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, Ljubljana, Vancouver, Bogota, and Santiago, Chile.

Shannon Carlson

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Shannon Carlson

Shannon Carlson is the Director of Talent Management at Financial Finesse, the pioneering organization of the socially-driven financial wellness industry, where she is a key member of the executive team and leads HR, recruiting, training and development, and culture. She is also catalyst and leader of company scalability initiatives, driving double digit company growth during her tenure.

Also, an entrepreneur and entrepreneurial advocate, Shannon ran a confectionery business during the industry’s heyday in the midst of the ‘great recession’. She has also been a consultant for small businesses during periods of growth or change, and a career coach for young professionals. She has a passion for supporting individuals and businesses with strong visions, heart and drive, who have taken the risk or leap to see their vision to fruition.

Shannon holds an MBA from Pepperdine University with a focus in Entrepreneurship, and a BBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University. Originally from Houston, Texas, she now calls Los Angeles her home, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.

Stephane Roger

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Stephane Roger

Stéphane Roger is the founder of TEDxVaugirardRoad, a leading TEDx event in Paris, France, gathering each year 700 spectators in the famous Bobino theatre, generating 1M views on YouTube since 2012.

Stéphane’s daily job is to help companies to build their events when there is a strong editorial content. This ranges from the event conception to the theme definition, speakers’ casting, speakers’ coaching.

For 15 years, he was Marketing and Strategy Director in video games and B2C software. Since 2011 he has also been a coach and psychotherapist, training managers in organisations to improve their communication, leadership, management, and relationship skills.

Sunny Vachher

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Sunny Vachher

Sunny Vachher is a creative visionary entrepreneur and an innovative thinker bringing creative vision to life from wonder to wonderful: the big picture. Sunny is an Award-Winning Independent Producer, with commercial, film, TV, and digital projects that have gained success and recognition at prestigious film festivals around the world and have also received digital distribution with top tier studios in Hollywood. Sunny is a philanthropist at heart and believes in creating stories and experiences that genuinely have the power to INSPIRE and do GOOD for others through sparking global change, and this vision led him to establish Sunny Day Features (a motion picture company). Recently, Sunny produced his first major motion picture titled One Under the Sun (a feature film) which had an international premiere at Cannes Film Festival 2016 with a USA debut at San Diego Comic Con 2016; the film releases globally in March 2017. As Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Hollywood Casting and Film Studios (founded in 2012), it is Sunny’s passion for filmmaking and storytelling that leads him to create and produce quality films for the studio, while developing concepts that enhance and further the studio’s brand identity, and he thrives in bridging the gap between actors and filmmakers, and creating opportunities for artists through the studios’ film productions. With Business degrees in Finance, Real Estate, and Entrepreneurship (MBA), and years of previous experience in Corporate Finance sector with a multi-billion dollar enterprise, Sunny also oversees the studio’s finances and operations in Los Angeles. And, Sunny serves on the Board of Advisors and Film Screening Committee for NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, a non-profit organization designed to showcase innovative works by emerging filmmakers from around the world.

Tiana Sanchez

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Tiana Sanchez

Tiana Sanchez is a best-selling author and motivational speaker. As CEO of Tiana Sanchez International, she partners with growing businesses to foster a more confident and competent workforce in the new economy by way books, action inspired talks, and content-rich workshops. For over a decade, Tiana has served as a Corporate Trainer and Business Consultant, with specific expertise in Leadership Development, Communication Strategies, Public Speaking, Content Development, and Facilitation.

Tiana was nominated for the 2016 Los Angeles Business Journal Women’s Summit Rising Star Award. Tiana has coached, trained, and developed the top talent for some well-known organizations such as Southern California Edison, Verizon, Time Warner Cable Arena, Hot Dog on a Stick, AIDS Services Foundation Orange County, and Sugar Foods Inc. Tiana is a sought after speaker and has delivered poignant workshops for educational institutions including Stanford University, UC Merced, Los Angeles Southwest College, University of La Verne, UC Riverside and Cal State LA.

“Everyone wants to succeed but not everyone is willing to do the work.”

Veronica Moy

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Veronica Moy

Somewhat obsessive, annoyingly methodical, and a comical multitasker, Veronica combines her beloved quirks with visions of cascading flowers, fun-loving crowds, and endless food displays as a professional events manager. With over a decade of experience, Veronica has coordinated a diverse range of events–from intimate dinners to buzzing career fairs to college self-defense classes. Though she is a proud graduate of USC (Go Trojans!), Veronica no longer has the attention span to watch football games in their entirety and, instead, spends her spare time chasing around her cats for a cuddle or beating up inanimate objects in boxing class (and, oftentimes, actual people in other combat sport classes). But no need to worry about her fists in public! They’re usually busy holding a tattered book or freshly baked cookies.

Victoria Hanlin

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Victoria Hanlin

As a public speaking coach, I work with clients to develop their ability to speak confidently and deliver a memorable presentation. Being a good speaker demonstrates confidence and competence when it comes to business. Due to my classical training and over ten years experience in public speaking, I coach clients in the techniques and skills needed to capture their audience and deliver a powerful, yet seemingly effortless, performance. They will feel in control, well prepared, and nerve free.